Poetry is an engaging and inclusive activity for older people that can help develop memory, imagination and identity. This book provides guidance on setting up and monitoring poetry projects for people living with dementia in group care homes and individual families. It explains the benefits of creative expression for people with dementia, and shows how to facilitate poetry reading and writing groups in different environments.Specific techniques for introducing poetry to older peop...

How can positive psychology approaches help us to understand the process of adjustment to, and living well with dementia?As accounts of positive experiences in dementia are increasingly emerging, this book reviews current evidence and explores how psychological constructs such as hope, humour, creativity, spirituality, wisdom, resilience and personal growth may be linked with wellbeing and quality of life in dementia. Expert contributors from a range of academic and clinical backgr...

This important book simply but persuasively demonstrates why we should provide the opportunities for people with dementia to experience the great outdoors. It also gives a voice to people with dementia who have felt the benefit of getting closer to nature. The contributors explore many different ways in which people with dementia can experience and interact with nature through pursuits such as farming, gardening and walking, and the book includes a chapter on the therapeutic, life-enhancin...

Providing people with dementia with opportunities to engage in creative activity can play a crucial role in maintaining and enhancing communication, and in reinforcing personhood and identity. This thoughtful book describes how people with dementia, and the people who work with and care for them, can foster and develop a creative approach, and provides rich and varied ideas for creative activities.The authors explore the concept of creativity - what exactly it is, its particular re...

Positive shifts in attitudes mean that emphasis is now being placed on the person with dementia and their personal relationships, rather than the illness. There is also growing recognition of the significance of a person's spiritual life in forming an essential basis for their sense of identity, and in providing them with a resource for coping.Offering an inter-disciplinary approach to spirituality and personhood in dementia care, the contributors to this book are leading practitio...

Establishing playfulness as an essential component of dementia care, this positive and uplifting book will be key in changing attitudes and providing ideas for new and valuable ways of interacting and being with individuals with the condition.John Killick explores the nature of playfulness and the many ways in which it can enrich the lives of people with dementia, including as a means of maintaining relationships and communication, supporting communication and generally lifting the...